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Words with unusual arrangements of letters

This week's words
verisimilitude
syzygy
yob
kine
spendthrift

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Words borrowed from languages that are now extinct

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(SPEND-thrift)

MEANING:

noun: A person who spends money wastefully.
adjective: Wasteful with money.

ETYMOLOGY:

A spendthrift is, literally, one who spends his wealth, from Middle English thrift (prosperity), from Old Norse thrifast (to thrive), from thrifa (to grasp). Earliest documented use: 1601.

NOTES:

Spendthrift is the longest word whose phonetic and normal spellings are the same. Two colorful synonyms of this word are dingthrift and scattergood.

USAGE:

"A Saudi judge has told a seminar on domestic violence that it is okay for a man to slap his wife for lavish spending."
Saudi Judge Says OK to Slap Spendthrift Wife; Agence France Presse (Paris); May 10, 2009.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: